Sebastián (Kristyan Ferrer) is seventeen years old and as a favour to his sick uncle, takes over the day to day running of a “love” motel on the windswept coast of Veracruz, in Mexico. Sebastián is hard working, but apart from making the rooms after the hotel’s short staying guests leave, there isn’t much to do beyond wonder about what goes on behind the locked doors of the motel’s rooms.
Soon, Sebastián finds himself in conversation with Miranda (Adriana Paz) a local real estate salesperson and motel regular who is frequently left waiting by her married lover. Both Sebastián and Miranda are beautiful, in a very natural, Latin American way; he young, rural and richly featured, she, older while not worn down by life, curvy and sensuous. From there a relationship develops, fuelled as much by the desire to stave off boredom as their own, mutual curiosity.
The Empty Hours is Aarón Fernández’ second feature film and the director chose to make a relatively simple, almost predictable story which gave him room to focus on how the characters would develop in this environment. What results is a very visually driven film. The muted colours, dark greens and rich greys almost mocking the coastal backdrop. The only postcard blues we see are on the faded, salt encrusted walls of the motel.
In way it feels like not much happens in The Empty Hours, expect for a lot of waiting and the struggle to stave off boredom in this sleepy, not quite idyllic resort. But, what we see in fact, is the process of Sebastian’s emotional education. And we see it though a delicate mix of still, panning and handheld camera work. While the later goes overboard at times (one coconut harvesting scene is particularly dizzying), the cinematographic choices, coupled with a steady sense of composition and framing make for a lot of visual interest in what is a relatively slow moving film, with not a lot of dialogue and very little music.
The Empty Hours’ natural sensuality creeps up on the viewer, especially in the final act, as this banal, somewhat dirty and rather unremarkable little world starts to revels it’s details and suggestive beauty. An exceptional, fresh, subtle and delicate film.
